- BlackBerry’s branding partnership with TCL ended in February 2020.
- Sales of existing TCL-made BlackBerry phones will end by the end of this month.
- Support, including customer and warranty support, will continue until August 31, 2022.
Bengaluru: Onward Mobility, a US-based company in the mobile security space, will work closely with BlackBerry and FIH Mobile, a subsidiary of Foxconn Technology Group, to launch new BlackBerry 5G smartphones next year.
BlackBerry is making a comeback into the smartphone space with Onward Mobility after ending the branding partnership with TCL in February this year. BlackBerry had signed a deal with Optiemus Infracom for making phones for only Indian market.
In 2015, BlackBerry finally switched to Android after its BB10 market share fell below 0.5 per cent.
BlackBerry in 2016 said that it would no longer design and make its own smartphones and TCL released the BlackBerry KEYone in 2017 and Key2 LE was the last BlackBerry-branded phone to be made by TCL.
Sales of existing TCL-made BlackBerry phones will end by the end of this month but the support, including customer and warranty support, will continue until August 31, 2022.
On a mission
Onward Mobility is planning a new QWERTY keyboard and touch screen Android devices in the first half of next year in in North America and Europe.
“To provide all businesses, from government to enterprise to those who power the gig economy—the most productive, most user-friendly and most secure mobile devices ever created. So nothing gets in the way of their mission,” Onward Mobility said on its website.
“Top of mind for us is not just making the most secure and productive device, but also being an everyday device. That means things like a top-notch camera, and the other specs you’d expect from your day-to-day phone. Simultaneously, we know that we must be competitive, and so is our pricing,” OnwardMobility CEO Peter Franklin told The Register.